Riptide
by CoffeeAndConjunctions
Summary: Life has a strange way of happening, even when you are actively avoiding it. So she just lets go and soothes her ego by giving herself the illusion of choice. It was a lie though, she was a goner the moment he turned those brown eyes at her. He wasn't even trying but somehow she falls anyway.
1. Mutual

"Avoidance is a wonderful therapy"  
― Maggie Stiefvater,

Life begins to have a routine here.

In the morning when she crawls out of bed with her four hours of sleep before the dawn breaks she meets Steve at the Elevator prepped for a run and joins him for the first few miles before they split at the fork in the road and jog alone with their thoughts before coming together to return back to the Tower. Neither one of them calls it home, not yet.

Some days when she manages five hours and knows she's missed the Captain she'll lay in bed, staring at the ceiling seeing Red for longer then she admits even to herself and rises with sounds of Thor in the kitchen on the floor above. Ever since discovering the concept of Brunch it has become his favored meal. Bacon is sizzling in a pan and he's whisking the batter for waffles from the iron sitting on the counter. His boisterous greeting and the ridiculous picture he makes in enough to wipe away some of her melancholy so she hops on a stool and stays away from the food which is the best help she can give—not hindering. The others join eventually and she's the first to slip away, uncomfortable with the open, friendly atmosphere, she'll learn to adjust to it.

She was adaptable.

Clint is at the farm and she misses him everyday—a routine without him seems wrong somehow-she's been her rock for years.

At night she runs into Tony with the odd hours she keeps because they are both haunted by demons who chase away sleep. They don't talk about it because it isn't in their nature but he pours her a drink and she lends him the company of her silence.

Even Pepper is quickly becoming a staple in her life when the CEO can be dragged away from the board rooms of Malibu but for the weeks she has resided at the Tower she has yet to interact with Bruce on any sort of personal level.

He's avoiding her.

It's okay, she's avoiding him too.


	2. Care

One does not become a top ranked Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D without having a rather keen eye, surprising skill in observation and a decisive ability to take action. Which is why she supposes she finds herself in this situation. Thor's Dr. Foster had joined them in the Tower for the last week for a collaborative project between herself and what her spunky—buxom—assistant had dubbed the 'Science Bros'. Rarely did she see them out of the lab and then it was only to refuel or being dragged away by their partners for forced rest.

The labs were encased in glass walls, Tony has spouted something about having nothing to hide when she had first arrived and had been given a guided tour but she'd only half listened, and each time she had passed by they had all been talking in rapid tones with that mad energy that seemed to possess them. Thor had visited in the morning the first day, she watched him from her place on the couch—laptop running an encryption analysis-he'd walked in with a slight frown and a heaping plate of food. The chiding way he had spoken to the tiny woman had been amusing, clearly she had him wrapped around her little finger because she had smiled, inhaled the food and then proceeded to kick him out. He would visit every morning and then drag her out in the wee hours of the night to join him in bed.

Natasha liked Jane, she was a focused, driven woman who would deny a literal God for the sake of her work—that and she had slapped Stark the first time he had made a 'hide the Mjolnir' joke when Thor had come to collect her. Being Banner's shadow had it's privileges, even if she was stuck in the lab during most of her guard duty shifts.

He'd insisted it wasn't necessary in the Tower, she had placed her headphone back on and gone back to her laptop.

Pepper still in her sky high heels had visited with an espresso in hand and a lingering caress to Stark's jaw the third day in when she returned from Shanghai, she'd made brief small talk with the Russian and then excused herself no doubt to collapse into bed. The rest of the week followed suit and each time those little domestic displays happened she would note the way Banner's posture would bend further, shoulder's hunched as if enclosing himself in a cocoon.

For two days she does nothing, ignores the kicked dog look that crosses his face before the moment passes and he is back in the fold of the mad science energy, dishing out his particular brand of self-deprecating humor occasionally as a contrast to starts narcissistic commentary. On the seventh day she makes her way down to the lab at eight, later then normal because she has gone out of her way to for this silly idea which had refused to leave her head.

Stark and Jane are pouring over blue prints while Banner is working the holoscreens with a dizzying speed. Not bothering to announce her presence, Stark and Jane are too wrapped up in the glory ions, she notes that Banner's eyes leave the screen just long enough to gauge her position in the room.

And they called her paranoid.

Approaching the curly haired Doctor she notes that he could use a shave, dark stubble dominate his face, and stops closer then he probably would have liked her too. Though she thinks that three blocks away would have been closer then he would have liked to have her. Non-descriptive cup in hand she holds out her offering to the confused Doctor who hesitates before removing his glasses and finally meeting her gaze. He makes no move to grab the cup, she was going to have to use words.

 _Great._

"It's Chai."

"I-It's Chai?" he asks in that stuttering manner of his.

"For you, from the place down on 64th. Decaff."

"Oh."

Accepting the cup he still watches her like he expects this to be some elaborate trick, Stark is throwing them side way glances but is keeping mercifully quiet. Once the cup is out of her hands she lifts up her head phones and makes her way to the couch in the corner with the perfect view of the room and blessed solitude. Around three her cramping fingers stop typing and she unfurls from her seat to go grab lunch. Thor has already bribed Jane away from her research with a promise of midday pancakes and she's pretty sure Stark had left when Pepper had come down and crocked her finger at him. Which had left her and him to continue on working.

When she is half way out the door a slight tug at her wrist stops her, his hands have been shoved deep into the pants of his slacks and he looks at her like he's surprised he's done this.

"Thank you uhhmm for the Chai."

Nodding she thinks the awkward encounter is over but he opens his mouth and out come tumbling more words.

"You eat right?"

Quirking a brow she turns so she is fully facing him, arms crossing under her breasts, "Only the blood of my enemies and occasionally pasta."

With a half forced laugh one of his large hands comes up to muss his already wild curls.

"That place on 64th has some pretty decent food—it was one of my favorite haunts..."

Of course she knows, she'd read his file.

"Banner, are you asking me out to a lunch date?"

The good Doctor looks like he's swallowed his tongue and his hands come up to gesticulate but no words are coming out, only exclamations of panic. A genuine laugh manages to break through her poker face.

"You dork. Come on then, I can't order Indian worth a shit Doc."

She's no good with words.

Clearly he was worse.


End file.
